London-based food-tech platform Taster raises $37m in funding
London-based digital restaurant platform Taster has raised $37m in series B funding, led by Cazoo-backing firm, the company confirmed today.
Backed by the same firm that helped used-car platform Cazoo land its £5bn valuation, Octopus Ventures, Taster has capitalised on the growth seen within the food delivery industry over the last 18 months.
“If McDonald’s or Burger King were to launch today, they would do so in a radically different way to how they did in the 20th Century. Back then, consumers wanted to eat ‘fast and cheap’; in 2021, they want to eat ‘fast and well’,” co-founder and CEO, Anton Soulier, said.
The online food industry, which is expected to be worth $180bn by 2023, is only used by 10 per cent of the food service sector.
Bypassing the high fixed costs of a physical restaurant and declining high street footfall, Taster’s digital restaurant platform has over 70 digital restaurants across Europe.
One of Deliveroo’s first employees and former KPMG senior associate, Soulier, founded the platform in 2017, setting up the digital shop in the capital.
Octopus Ventures investor, Rebecca Hunt said that “it’s also the first digital food brand concept to scale using a licensed partner model. By partnering with existing experts in food preparation to run local kitchens, it can scale rapidly while ensuring consistency of food quality, as well as operational efficiency.”
“We firmly believe this will be a winning combination and Anton’s experience at Deliveroo gives Taster another unfair advantage in this rapidly growing market.”